Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.ĭerecka Purnell is a lawyer, writer, organizer, and author of forthcoming Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom. Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings. Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. Calling them felt like something, and something feels like everything when the other option seems like nothing. Louis, let alone the nation. But the police were a placebo. She saw too much sexual violence and buried too many friends to consider getting rid of police in her hometown of St.
In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. Millions of people continue to protest police violence because these "solutions" do not match the problem: the police cannot be reformed.
From community policing initiatives to increasing diversity, none of it has stopped the police from killing about three people a day. Louis native’s genre-bending book demonstrates her road to adopting abolitionist politics and makes the argument for why the new abolitionism - the push to end prisons and policing in the United States - ought to be the future of the country."įor more than a century, activists in the United States have tried to reform the police. "Part memoir, part political and social commentary, the St. "An informed, provocative, astute consideration of salvific alternatives to contemporary policing and imprisonment." There will also be an option to snag the book during the event. Click here to register for the event with a donation of any amount of your choice or you can order the book below to be added to the event's registration list. Donations will go to Taller Salud in Puerto Rico. Loyalty can't wait to host Derecka Purnell and Clint Smith for Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast.
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